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[I collect VHS tapes]

Does abandoning a game you've invested a lot of time in before finishing it bother you? I stopped having fun with Assassins Creed: Valhalla over a month ago so I decided to stop playing it.

I figured my interest would eventually come back. It hasn't. The only reason I'm considering going back to it is that I've put roughly 50 hours into it and I think the completitionist in me is struggling as to whether I should go back and just finish it. Same thing with Cyberpunk 2077. Was having a blast but I think I burned out doing too many side quests. Put in roughly 50 hours in the first week it was released, took a break about a month ago, and haven't really had a desire to go back. Granted, I don't feel too bad about Cyberpunk 2077 because I don't really mind the idea of just waiting until the next gen patch comes out and starting a fresh play through.

It's weird, I took a break from gaming over the past several years, managed to pre-order an XSX, and I find the games I'm spending the most time on are old xbox titles on gamepass that I never played when they originally came out (this is my first xbox, previously owned Playstation 1-4 and various Nintendo consoles). Was thinking of starting Alan Wake tonight but I want to avoid a huge backlog of games I haven’t finished (my backlog of games I’ve began but haven’t yet completed currently consists of AC: Valhalla, Castlevania: SOTN, Halo MCC, Ori and the Blind Forest, Yakuza 0 and Sunset Overdrive.)

Anyways, do you find that your OCD gets the best of you, forcing you to finish games you stop enjoying? Or do you just quit as soon as you're no longer having fun? Maybe my attention span is just too shit nowadays to finish long/+40 hour games?

 

[Dthomp]

Usually it does and my OCD kicks in to at least beat them game. I recently put down Hollow Knight after 25 hours because I just hit a point where I realized I was not having any fun in the game and it was getting more tedious the further in I got so I finally dropped it. Only other game I dropped partway in the last few years was Days Gone to let my wife play it but it took her forever to finish and I want to go back, but just haven't but it's always on my short list to play.

 

[crozier]

I need to earn a respectable number of trophies at a bare minimum. And beat the game, of course. I say this as my backlog sits at over 150 games on PS4 and nearly 500 on PC. I have a game buying problem more than a playing problem. Once I start one, it doesn’t feel right to quit it prematurely.

 

[Sidney Prescott]

Not anymore I don't.

If I'm not enjoying a game I will stop playing it as soon as it stops feeling fun. Abandoning it for more fun games means I never feel regret. I hate forcing myself to finish a game just for the sake of it. I used to do that when I was a bit of a completionist and tried to get all the trophies/100% but it honestly wasn't fun after a while.

I only get all trophies now if I really love a game, and want more out of it.

 

[Gandora64]

The moment you stopped having fun with a game is wasted time. When i saw how AC Valhalla gameplay loop looked like i knew the game doesn't deserve my time, so i skipped it and watched the cinematics on youtube. If you are not having fun with a game, drop it and play something else.

 

[Codes 208]

No more than dropping a game that I played a few hours of.

if a game gets grindy and I get bored, fine whatever. I still had fun for the period of time which is much better than playing a pos that I dropped just a few hours in.

 

[Bryank75]

I was annoyed with Destiny 2 and particularly how they balanced the classes. It seemed like Hunter got everything good and was always overpowered.

I eventually got out of it even though friends would try to get me to play again. I am really glad I got out of it though cause no matter how much you grind, you never actually gain a feeling of being powerful. It's just a mechanism to lock you out of activities over and over each season.

I look in on it every now and then to see that things never change... Hunter is still getting the best supers and they never gave Titan anything worthwhile or allowed Titan skating again... so I will probably never play it again.

 

[ArtemisClydeFrog]

Yup. The guild I've been raiding with in WoW Classic since the start just broke up due to people either getting burnt out or going to retail, no drama really at all. It's hella depressing, especially with how close we were to completing Naxx (never did it in Vanilla)

So I abandoned WoW Classic for retail, and it's been great so far. Been playing on and off for years but a lot of IRL friends play now so I'll stick with it I think.

 

[yet_another_alt]

It's liberating.

 

[Sidney Prescott]

I was annoyed with Destiny 2 and particularly how they balanced the classes. It seemed like Hunter got everything good and was always overpowered.

I eventually got out of it even though friends would try to get me to play again. I am really glad I got out of it though cause no matter how much you grind, you never actually gain a feeling of being powerful. It's just a mechanism to lock you out of activities over and over each season.

I look in on it every now and then to see that things never change... Hunter is still getting the best supers and they never gave Titan anything worthwhile or allowed Titan skating again... so I will probably never play it again.

Felt the same way with Destiny. Just felt like I was grinding the same stuff every week and it got tiresome. I'm not sure how people are still playing it daily without getting fed up. There is an underlying pressure with Destiny to keep up with the content drops, raid to get the best gear and raid again. I just really can't be bothered. I'd rather play a good single player game.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

I'll just stop if it isn't fun.
But I have something else where I can stop playing a game, to make time for other stuff, and then I'll get back to it like multiple years later to finish it.

 

[Kadayi]

I like to noodle with games so finishing is often the exception rather than the rule. The intention is there, it's just sometimes I end up putting them down for a change of scene and enough time passes that my muscle memory of how to play ends up kind of shot and it's hard to go back a game when you're rusty on the systems. I don't mind all that much if I don't finish, as long as I had fun with it tbh and feel I got my money's worth out of the experience.

I mean, last year after about 3 previous attempts I finally saw RotTR through to conclusion (I replayed TR beforehand) and then wrapped up SotTR as well (got all the SP achievements as well).

 

[Bryank75]

Felt the same way with Destiny. Just felt like I was grinding the same stuff every week and it got tiresome. I'm not sure how people are still playing it daily without getting fed up. There is an underlying pressure with Destiny to keep up with the content drops, raid to get the best gear and raid again. I just really can't be bothered. I'd rather play a good single player game.

On the plus side, I met loads of great people in D1.

The community was so amazing back then.

 

[crozier]

Oh, did I mention that I changed my 360 gamertag 3 times because I didn’t like games without achievements showing up in my list?

 

[Corgi1985]

No. Games are padded to hell and you end up seeing most of the mechanics in the first few hours anyway

 

[Tg89]

Nah. Once I’m not having fun I’m generally done.

Most games overstay their welcome these days. Story focused games especially tend to have gameplay loops that grow old well before the game is over.

 

[Certinty]

I can imagine a lot of the replies in here being about Valhalla.

But for me like 30 hours or whatever in it just lost all its fun. Shit story, repetitive objectives, you get the drift.

Didn’t regret giving up on it at all, would rather that than waste even more time on it. Game gave me enough enjoyment I suppose.

 

[Sidney Prescott]

On the plus side, I met loads of great people in D1.

The community was so amazing back then.

Can't disagree with that. I had one of those Destiny Sherpa guys help me do the raid for the first time. Took us forever. It was my favourite memory of playing Destiny 1. The King's Fall raid was peak for that game.

 

[Tschumi]

When i upgraded my PS3 to a PS4 i lost a lot of stuff i didn't realise I'd miss.. GT6 for one

 

[reinking]

I currently have over 60 hours in AC:V and I feel your pain. I have only completed three locations in England and it is dragging. I've decided to quit chasing dots on the map and focus on the story. I'm already level 145 in a level 90 zone. If I feel like going back for dots later I will do most of them end game.

 

[Sidney Prescott]

I currently have over 60 hours in AC:V and I feel your pain. I have only completed three locations in England and it is dragging. I've decided to quit chasing dots on the map and focus on the story. I'm already level 145 in a level 90 zone. If I feel like going back for dots later I will do most of them end game.

I love Assassin's Creed games but that has always been my problem with them. There is just so much stuff to do and collect, it's overwhelming. I remember back in the day trying to get all the collectibles in Assassin's Creed II, it was an absolute nightmare.

 

[CitizenZ]

1,000%. I have hated myself for grinding out games but over the last couple years and recently i have just tossed them aside particularly if they have nothing new to offer. The latest was AC Odyessy(first AC game since Ac2) how is that game so beloved? Its bland AF in every way. It is the only game EVER set in my favorite world(Rome/ Greece mythology) that i threw to the side actually with no regret after 20 hrs.

 

[Yerd]

Yup. The guild I've been raiding with in WoW Classic since the start just broke up due to people either getting burnt out or going to retail, no drama really at all. It's hella depressing, especially with how close we were to completing Naxx (never did it in Vanilla)

So I abandoned WoW Classic for retail, and it's been great so far. Been playing on and off for years but a lot of IRL friends play now so I'll stick with it I think.

I bought 3 months of time just to play wow classic. I did little research and hadn't played any version of wow for many years.

The sole reason for me to play was the original fury warrior spec. Which I discovered, after gettin to level 10 and finally seeing the skill tree, was not the original fury tree. I was so pissed. Did research and the reason I loved the original spec is apparently the reason they used a later version. Almost no one used fury spec in vanilla wow, when it was current, and I felt like I was getting away with murder back then. And I was, I guess.

False advertising to me. I couldn't find barely any information on the original fury tree. There must have been a streamer during testing that was doing what I would and so they nerfed it. I could only find comments about it.

The original bloodthirst skill was 100% attack after a killing blow. Sucked for pve raiding and such, but godly for pvp and solo. Especially in vanilla days when you would pvp at the barrens crossroads. Murder some low level guy and then wreck the guy your own level with the next hit. I remember being the most targetted warrior on my server because of that spec, and being tauren. I miss that version of warrior.

 

[AJUMP23]

I love getting what I want and moving on.

 

[Evil Calvin]

Between almost 300 Xbox and PS4 games I have only finished less than ten. I love jumping into a new game when it comes out and all of the talk and hype and then after a bunch of hours I wane off, especially when the next new shiny game comes out. I want to go back to the others, and a few I, do but it's tough.

 

[AmuroChan]

It used to bother me because I was very much a completionist gamer growing up, but in recent years as my free time have become more and more scarce, that mindset has changed. If I reach a point where a game is no longer fun, I move on.

 

[Evil Calvin]

It's liberating.

At a reasonable 4 hours played a day on average that is over 3 1/3 years straight. God help you!

 

[Moogle11]

Not as much as continuing wasting time on something I’m not having fun with anymore when there are tons of games I could have more fun with. Wish I’d realized that years sooner than I did.

 

[ReBurn]

No. I play until I get bored.

 

[IntentionalPun]

Not really.

If I feel like it, I'll start a game over.

Played lots of games a few times, and only finished them once.

Hell I've played some games a few times but never to completion.

I guess I just like edging.

 

[Trimesh]

No, not at all. I play games for fun and if I'm not having fun then there is zero point in continuing to play the game. Thinking about it, this is probably a part of the reason I'm so down on the PS4/Xbone generation - for me, it's had an abnormally large number of "why am I still playing this?" titles.

 

[Kenpachii]

finishing a game isn't my priority. i played lots of games over and over again and never even saw the ending in my life.

 

[dano1]

Nope I do it all the time. If it’s really good I’ll finish it!!

 

[Azaroth]

Yes, it does bother me. My OCD kicks in and due to that, I finish most games I start. I have started to get somewhat better about it, but it's still a struggle. Like you, I got about 50 hours into AC: Valhalla and recently convinced myself to drop it. I realized I was thinking "I wish I wouldn't have bought this and would have played [x] instead." I finally convinced myself, if that's how I'm thinking now, I should really drop it, regardless of how much time I've already put into it. It's a real struggle though, mentally, and I find that I have to really convince myself that I truly dislike a game before I can convince myself to give up on it. With Valhalla, enough things about it started to bother me that I was able to mentally justify it.

I think the sunk cost fallacy affects many of us, but it's key to remember that just because one has spent money or time on a thing, that's no reason to keep spending time on it if it's not enjoyable or worthwhile.

The need to finish games causes me to end up disliking many of the ones I play, because that final push to just get it done ends up with me "hate playing" too many games. And far too many games these days are just ridiculously bloated. The Assassin's Creed games are a perfect example. For most of the overly long games, it's hard to believe the reason is because of the developers passion or a desire to deliver value to customers. More often than not, it feels like a publisher's mandate to just keep the player in the game for as long as possible so they don't finish it and trade it in (thus bolstering the used games market) or to push micro transactions. The length of most AAA games these days feels like a cynical publisher move, and not something for the benefit of the customer.

TL;DR: Far too many games are far too long these days and overstay their welcome.

 

[El Muerto]

Eh, there's a ton of games out there and if you're not having fun move on to something else. I just stopped playing Sekiro because I sank about 20hrs or so in it and was just not having fun despite making progress in it. I have a full time job, a house to take care of, and other stuff so my gaming time is precious to me.

 

[LordBlodgett]

It used to bother the shit out of me. I also used to try to platinum every game I played. What would actually happen is I would get tired of playing and then force myself to play until I burned out and then I would quit gaming for a while.

Something changed over the last few years. As work and family life became more busy, and my backlog grew larger and larger I started to change my outlook. I began playing games and then if they don't catch me in the first few hours I just quit and played something else.

Gamepass was the straw that broke the camels back though. With my massive backlog + new games on Gamepass all the time I no longer feel even a little bit guilty about not playing a game I don't like. There are nights where I start 2-3 games before one of them clicks.....This kind of freedom has been amazing. I'm finding all kinds of games that I never would have tried, and I have no guilt about tossing a game if it isn't fun. I can't believe I wasted so much of my life on games I didn't even enjoy for achievements, or ever forced myself to finish a mediocre game because I felt guilty.....

 

[nkarafo]

No, not really. I have plenty of games that i abandoned half way through. Sometimes i'm getting the urge to play some of them. Sometimes i don't. I just try to do what's fun/interesting to me. I don't want gaming to feel like a job.

 

[Valonquar]

Finally platinuming a game and shelving it, or finishing a binge of 5 seasons of a TV show that has long since been over\canceled always leave me with post-partum depression.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

The moment you stopped having fun with a game is wasted time. When i saw how AC Valhalla gameplay loop looked like i knew the game doesn't deserve my time, so i skipped it and watched the cinematics on youtube. If you are not having fun with a game, drop it and play something else.

This is the correct approach IMO. Do not think you owe it to yourself or anyone to finish the game. You got your money’s worth, if you are invested in the story just watch the game movie on Youtube and move on to something else.
Nowadays so many games are artificially padded with meaningless tasks it’s normal not wanting to do everything.

 

[Rean no Kiseki]

Never force yourself to finish anything! Always play what you feel like at that moment and always have "palette cleansers", if you force yourself to play something you'll hate it and nitpick it to death.

Here's a personal experience, i played The Evil Within 2 about 4 months after release and i forced my self to finish it and hated every minute of it, about a year later i got the urge to play it after watching a review on YouTube by GGGmanlives and it got me interested in replaying it, and when I did i absoultly loved it and did 2 back to back playthroughs and now i think it's waaaay better than the 1st game, second example is more recent during the lockdown in May/June i played Ni No Kuni 2 a game i had played maybe 2 hours at best since release and didn't like what i played, once again this time that I was interested in giving the game the full chance and attention it deserves and i loved every minute of it and even bought and finished the DLCs!.

i have various other examples of this but really the point is never ever play something you're not into anymore, some times you may comeback months or years later and love it some times you may not ever play it again.

 

[Bo_Hazem]

What bothers me is playing something I'm not enjoying. Find your cup of tea and enjoy it, there is nothing wrong with what happened to you. I stopped at the very last giant in Shadow of Colossus and never played the game again. Doesn't bother me at all. Sometimes you just get fed up from a game and it's time to move on and enjoy your free time. It's enough to be bothered at work and life chores.

 

[King_Mandu]

Depends on the game. I can play an Assassin's Creed or Elder Scrolls game for 50-100 hours and never come close to finishing the main quest. I got more than my money's worth and spending more time just to see a lackluster story concluded doesn't interest me.

On the plus side, I met loads of great people in D1.

The community was so amazing back then.

So many good memories from back then. I played with lfg randoms most of D1, got sherpa'd through my first Vault of Glass run by a British dude who was incredibly patient and encouraging, and even made an online friend via the sherpa'd run. That friend and I decided to pay it forward next week because we were ready and found 4 players who'd never run VoG. Everyone was chill, cheering our successes, laughing at our screw-ups and taking way too long but we persevered to Atheon. After about 8 or 9 hours total consisting of short breaks, fighting off the urge to look up how to finish, and many, many failures at Atheon, one of the other player's girlfriend got pissed and started yelling at him so he had to drop out. Finally, a squeaky voiced teenager, our saviour, joined us and guided us through to victory. We showered him in praise at the end and formed a dance party around him. What an experience. I joined a large local clan later in D1 (we even all met up a few times for food and drinks!) and continued into D2 Y1 with them but clan drama like cliques, long standing members unwilling to help or guide new players, etc killed the clan. I quit shortly after as Bungie started making the same mistakes they made in D1.

The good members of the community far outweighed the bad but I'll never forget some asshole who started calling our fireteam a bunch of Jewish homophobic slurs because a few people went down during Crota. I looked around to find out which player was talking shit and of course, he was also down.

I still get that tinge of wanting to hop back in now that it's on PC but catching up seems so expensive and not worth the time I'd need to invest.

 

[Soodanim]

It depends on the reason for abandoning it. If it’s FFXIII where I no longer care in the slightest, I’m not looking back.

If it’s something I forget to return to, then I’ll still have some attraction to/ no repulsion from the game.

I suppose it depends on the definition of abandon, really. If you abandon with intent it’s obviously for a reason, and if you just forget to return did you even abandon it? That’s more along the lines of shelving for now, even if it’s a long now.

Having said all that, I semi-abandoned the Uncharted series. Got really into 1, then lost interest part way through 2. Never touched 3. I do intend to go back because I want to finish the trilogy off, but as you can probably tell it’s been a while.

 

[unintelligent orange]

Does abandoning a game you've invested a lot of time in before finishing it bother you?

...

Anyways, do you find that your OCD gets the best of you, forcing you to finish games you stop enjoying? Or do you just quit as soon as you're no longer having fun? Maybe my attention span is just too shit nowadays to finish long/+40 hour games?

These days generally I don't try to play many games. It's not worth it to put a shitload of time into something as dumb as grinding a call of duty game when you could be using that time better somewhere else. The times that I am playing games it's usually something casual/multiplayer with friends, or new entry in the small handful of series that I actually like.

As for finishing games I've started, if im interested in it and I suddenly stopped playing it for some reason, yes it would annoy me and I'd probably try to find time to pick it up again.

If I stopped liking a game while playing it due to design choices/something about it enough to put it down, then I'd probably stop playing it altogether. Unless I'm having second thoughts I wont bother with it again. Also, if I paid for a game and didnt get my worth out of it that would annoy me, so I generally only buy games I know I'll play start to finish.

 

[Dr.D00p]

Just put 70hrs in on The Division 2, loved every minute of it, until suddenly I didn't, and realised it would be just a never ending grind from now on, replaying the same missions but with tweaked enemy stats to make them harder, so stopped and moved on to the next game.

Life's too short.

 

[Daymos]

Yes! Oh man, does it ever. 50 hours would be a whole month of gametime for me sometimes. I would hate to waste that time on Assassins creed, thus I haven't touched one since AC4.. which I quit.

I buy too many games, but I won't invest myself in a game beyond an hour or two unless I'm committed to finishing it. I can still remember most of the games I got far into and never beat, like the last story (final boss) and ninja gaiden, and it still bothers me. I can't beat the last boss of Ninja gaiden on NES even with a freaking rewind function.

 

[Mista]

Used to bother me but not anymore. I dropped games before when they stopped being fun and I don’t regret that. For now I stopped playing Immortals, WD: Legion and AC: Valhalla because I am not in the mood for more open-world games.

This whole trend that happens in the industry needs to fuck off. What’s the current trend? Now everyone is making the same games. I can’t bother anymore and decided to pick my games more carefully.

 

[Simpkin92]

It used to bother me horribly to the point I would play games for completion and achievements and not for fun. After becoming a father and having my free time become almost non existent, I had no choice but to change. Now I only play a game if I’m having fun. Screw achievements, completion, and stats. Fun is definitely the most important metric.

Most recently I dropped cyberpunk 30 hours in because it was becoming monotonous and started feeling shallow

 

[Slings and Arrows]

If i've put significant time in to a game, and enjoyed it, i don't see it as abandonment, more of a job well done to the creators and a thanks for allowing me to be part of such an amazing experience

 

[Aion002]

After finishing an amazing game I tend to get a couple of days or even weeks without playing anything substantial. I get some nostalgic feelings and lingering wishes to return to the game.

I stopped playing Epic Seven a couple of weeks ago and I still think about it at least twice per day.

But it never bothers me, is just an nostalgic feeling.... Heck thinking about this made me want to go play Sekiro and Dark Souls 3 at the same time.